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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

South Africa part III

My favorite place to stay in the Hluwehluwe-Umfolozi national park is the Mpila campsite. There are no fences around the camp, so all the animals in the park, including lions, hyena's, buffalo's can walk on the site. It is dark after 19.00 and that is the time the predators are active. When you still have meat on the bqq, make sure the hyena's are not stealing it away!

Everyday a troop of vervet monkey's is patroling the campsite to check if eveybody closed their tent/lodge/roundavel. If not, they go in and will take everything that is eatable. It happend one time to me and I can tell you, they only need a very small hole!

When I am in my safari tent and just listen to the sounds of the bush, or walking around a bit, to the reception for instance, I feel the power of nature. It makes me feel small in this world because every moment a dangerous animal can approach and change your life forever.

I also did a walking safari with an armed ranger just after we spotted a big male lion. We drove some minutes in the oppisite direction, but it was a very excited moment when we climbed out the car and walked away from it, only to come back several hours later!